Who Called My Phone?

Are these numbers parameters or statistics?

An opinion poll uses random digit dialing equipment to dial 2000 randomly chosen residential telephone numbers. Of these, 621 are unlisted numbers. This isn’t surprising, because 35% of all residential numbers are unlisted. Is each of the boldface numbers a parameter or a statistic?

(621 and 35% are the boldfaced numbers)

A ‘Parameter’ is a value that describes a ‘population’.
A ‘Statistic’ is a value that describes a ‘sample’.

Furthermore, a ‘population’ is all of the individuals of interest in a particular study (eg. ALL residential phone numbers). A ‘sample’ is a group of individuals who are selected from a population in order to be studied (eg. the 2000 people randomly called; they are randomly selected from the entire population of residential phone numbers).

So, to answer your question:
621 is a statistic (it refers to the number of unlisted numbers in the study; in the SAMPLE of residential phone numbers)
35% is a parameter (it refers to the number of unlisted numbers in the entire POPULATION of residential phone numbers)

I hope this helps!